Never Say Never

In the spring of 2018, I came to the conclusion that marathons were occupying too much of my time and taking the fun out of running so I declared that, after 8 marathons, I would never run one again and stick to running only for fun. As a result, I only ran twice each week my running group friends throughout the year. My annual mileage dropped from 2000 to 730.

Cycling became my primary sport and I also became really interested in working on bikes. By the end of the year, I was making major progress and reaching wattage and speed numbers that I never thought I was even capable of. It has been a lot of fun and I love cycling but…

I miss running. The sad part is that, over the past several months, I have noticed a significant decline in my running fitness. What used to be an annoyingly slow, long-run pace now feels like a hard workout. Eight miles used to be an easy day and now it seems more like my limit.

This past weekend I ran with my friends Kevin and Catherine. We talked about the usual things like shoes, recent runs and upcoming races. While listening to them, I began to feel like an outsider for the first time. I no longer felt like a runner. For some unknown reason I ended up blurting out that I was thinking of running a marathon.

The weird thing is how good it felt to say it. I realized that instant that I would be signing up for another marathon.

Now I just need to find a race. Do I want to stick with a local race that I have not done before or travel and to a new one? Should I do a big race or do a small one with a chance of getting on the podium? Decisions.

The one concern I have is that I have made huge improvements in cycling and I really do not want to lose the work I have done. Some sort of balance between the two will be crucial but I think it can be done.